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Several people have asked me about how and where to buy knives to use in the kitchen. In a few words: find a knife shop, chat with the owner, talk about what you’re doing, ask for recommendations. Don’t go buy a Shun/Henckels/Wusthoff/Japanese set online because you’ve read they’re the dog’s nads (or perfect for removing the dog’s nads), that won’t work. You’ll buy half a dozen knives of which one or two will suit you and the rest will never be touched.
Instead, buy a knife when you need it. To start, a big chef’s knife (20-30 cms, I find 25 perfect) and a small vegetable/paring knife will get you through most jobs, and I probably use these two for three quarters of everything I do in the kitchen. Add a filleting knife if you start working with fish, a de-boner if you work with meat, a slicing knife if you need to slice stuff thinly (for example, if you start working in a kebab restaurant..) I’ve never found a vegetable peeler that lasts more than a few weeks so buy packs of three or five at a time from the restaurant wholesaler and chuck them when they’re done cutting, recommendations accepted (I prefer the ones that are shaped like knives, not those other weird ones).
Keep them sharp. This means using a steel every single time you use a knife, and getting them professionally sharpened whenever the steel no longer does its job. Almost all my knives are German Zwilling Henckels. My 25cm chef’s knife, my slicing knife, bread knife and one of my de-boners are the Spanish, Arcos brand which belongs to Henckels. My flexible deboner (the Arcos one is a solid blade) is a Henckels Premium Brand, as is my filleting knife.
I have Sabatier vegetable, small chef’s (15cm) and filetting knives but I keep them at home and don’t use them at work, they don’t hold an edge long enough.
I have Swiss Army straight-blade (the cutting edge is straight, not curved) vegetable and turning (looks like a Turkish assassin’s curved blade) knives, and a Sabatier palette knife and steel. I also have a conventional-blade vegetable knife bought from Metro, the big French restaurant supplier/wholesaler, and given to me as a present by Jean-Rémi Joly, one of my first Chefs. I use Arcos scissors at work for cutting fish fins etc.
And I SWEAR by my Bron Coucke mandolin, I use this more than some of my knives for slicing vegetables. Microplane graters in three or four different sizes.
I didn’t particularly choose these brands, I came to own them by going to the knife shop in town (here in Avignon) and discussing what I want to do with the owner. He’s very helpful. He sells the whole range of Henckels, from the cheap Arcos to the very, very expensive premium ones. So when I started I was going to cookery school I wanted something cheap and durable and he recommended Arcos. Then I moved up in the kitchen, needed a flexible deboner, he recommended the Henckels. Last knife I bought from him was the (Arcos) slicing knife which I used dozens of times a day last summer to slice marinated and smoked salmon. I also take all my knives back to him every few months to get them professionally sharpened. I used my big chef’s knife the other day to slice some dried apricots and it’d been literally months since I’d used it, so I managed to slice off almost my entire index finger fingernail with it, clean in one go, easier than cutting apricot. They’re SHARP when they come back from him.
If you’re going to do anything with your knives I highly recommend finding a local knife shop to sharpen them for you and show you how to use a steel to maintain the edge. Hand wash, dry and keep them either in a wood block (I do this with my home knives) or in a folding knife pouch, which is where I keep my work knives. Not in a drawer!
When it comes down to it, though, in the end what counts is not how good and/or expensive your knives are, it’s what you do with them. Nothing beats buying a sack of carrots and julienning/brunoising them until your fingers bleed. Search on Google or Youtube, you’ll find plenty of videos showing you good knife techniques – keep your thumb AWAY from the cutting edge!
Practice makes perfect.
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